Well, I'm sure there has been many complaints surrounding This Machine, but bear with me on this one. So, I'm coming back to Fallout: New Vegas, and I just read up on the the patch 1.02 for PS3. It seems that This Machine has had its power dropped from 65 to 55, and I really don't like the sounds of that. My reason is that I always liked how This Machine and the Brush Gun balanced each other out. Here is how they balanced each other out.

-This Machine has a higher rate of fire, but the Brush Gun has more power. Before the patch, they would both do about the same damage per second (about 140).
-This Machine is a unique weapon that doesn't have other a non-unique variant. The Brush Gun, while very rare, also has very rare ammo. So, both guns would require keeping in good condition along with possibly spending quite a few caps.
-This Machine holds eight rounds in its enbloc clip along with having a fast reload (Brush Gun loads six rounds into a tubular magazine), but the Brush Gun has very good accuracy (This Machine has some spread to it making more suitable for mid-range combat).

Sure, one can say it's an "overpowered weapon", but one can just use a weaker weapon for more of a challenge. The thing I love about Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas is you can make it a very casual game, or you can make it quite a challenging game. Besides, I'm a M1 Garand fanatic (always a favorite in just about every video game I play that has it). I'd say it's definately one of the most uber guns ever created.

Anyways, is there a very logical reason why This Machine had its power reduced?

You can get it without any effort at all as soon as you get to New Vegas.

Also, 40-75 ammo is now much more common than what it used to be. I found some in Doc Mitchell's house at lvl 1 It was a bug that made it so rare before.

Because Sawyer loves his civilian lever-action hunting rifles? And hates anything military?

Nerfing this machine and the brushgun would be a insult. the gun is great and deals some good firepower great for talking out anything. I would not see why they would nerf it or any other gun in new vegas

Read the OP. The whole point of this thread is that they DID drop damage for This Machine, from 65 to 55, in the patch.

This Machine with .308 JSP is epic.

ohh really i thought they just did it in ps3 because i use xbox

what is jsp ammo?

Crafted ammo with the Hand Loader perk. Increases damage by 50%.

damn wow. see i didnt get that perk and i wish i did since i know that. wait wait do you make it out of scrap metal and tin cans

Because they probably read a lot of forum posts of complaining about how the game is too easy and unbalanced requiring too much self-gimping etc?
PC users can mod things any way they want, but console users can't, and thus I guess they listened.

yah they listened to one of the things they shouldnt of. they shouldnt nerf any guns since ps3 and xbox 360 users cant mod them

Part of balancing. Seems Josh is having trouble balancing to his own wants and player needs. This is most seen in energy weapons. As he tweaked them apparently some guns and snipers were also tweaked for better or worse. At this point while I like JS and he knows a lot about weaponry I'm not sure of his balancing skills.

He explains a lot about it on his Formspring account. Typing formspring josh sawyer on Google should bring it up.

I like how it's closer to the other .308 rifles in power now. The Hunting Rifle, the Sniper Rifles, and This Machine shouldn't be too far from one another in regards to damage dealt [if one is striving for some accuracy], and their actual mechanical operation can be factored in for small adjustments.

Now, whether .308 rifles are underpowered or not is another question. I kill Deathclaws in two shots with JSPs (head), which is pretty damn good when you look at previous Fallout games. Humans and mutants fall at a single shot (body). Granted, these are sneak attack critical hits, but still, that's better than the previous Fallout (1 & 2) games for basic firearms.

It's pretty difficult to balance for every player's wants/preferences in games like these. I've yet to play a game that felt balanced from the get-go so that "everyone" thinks its so. Thus round in circles the constant rebalancing goes. It was one of the few things that drove me crazy about Blizzard....constantly changing their games for "balance issues" to try to stop people from having 'godly' characters which often meant new chr. (because your current is now all 'wrong') becomes very annoying after a while...to me at least...especially when all it means is players find new ways to make different godly chrs...

Yet, pretty much Sawyer is trying to get people to use .45-70. This Machine only get 5point of damage reduction; Snipe Rifle (another .308 weapon) get 22 points in damage reduction.

You make it out of .45-70 cases, rifle powder, large rifle primers, and lead just like any other ammunition.

Now, you can obtain the lead by using "Breakdown" at a reloading bench on other ammunition or by making lead from scrap metal at a reloading bench...

If he wants to do that he could always put out a scoped .45-70 single shot rifle like a Sharps or Hi-Wall. Since the sniper rifle as nerfed is useless unless you can score a sneak crit, I'd love something I could abandon it for.

Oh wow, your mad that you have to use the SNIPER RIFLE from a distance, while hidden?

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i've got too much rage about nerfed weapons and people requesting them. i can't seem to come up with a civil and useful reply, but I also can't just delete my post entirely.

Thanks for the replies people!

Anyways, I think the best reason has to be that all .308 guns should have about the same power. However, I still can't accept it when this happens to the M1 Garand when it's the only one in the game.

I'm not sure if it's about making the game more difficult. If somebody finds the game too easy, then they can just not use the very powerful weapons. I would like to see one of these very skilled people try to beat Fallout: New Vegas using nothing more than a BB Gun and a rolling pin on very hard difficulty and hardcoe mode.

Meh, i only use All-American and Gobi. For everything else there's 12.7mm pistol and Dinner Bell.

This Machine can eat through 100+ .308 rounds easily. That alone is enough of a nerf, if you are fighting a large group of tough enemies you are gonna be draining caps like it's nothing.

That is so true. Somebody should go through Quarry Junction, Black Mountain, and Dead Wind Cavern in one run with This Machine. They will chew up a lot of .308 rounds, stimpacks (possibly), and maybe a few weapon repair kits.

I say the only nerf This Machine needs is making reloading impossible until you finish the clip! Just like a real Garand. 8 shots to empty the En Bloc and it pops out the top!